While we continue to worship online every week, we are excited to welcome all who are able and comfortable to worship in-person in our historic Red Brick Church on Sundays at 10:30 AM. Your safety, health, and wellness are our our top priority. West Jersey Presbytery approved our session’s re-opening plan and our pastor, staff, and teams have worked hard to prepare for your arrival. Following the guidance from the CDC and health officials, we have implemented safety protocols, and designed an approximately thirty-minute worship experience that will be spiritually energizing and safe for you, your family, and other worshippers.

 Dear online worshipping friends: We apologize in advance should our live stream be interrupted (again!) by Facebook. We are working with Facebook and the music publisher to honor our music licenses and resolve these issues. Should you experience an interrupted live stream, please rejoin as soon as we are back online! Thank you for your patience.

This Week’s Worship Preview

This is the first Sunday after Christmas, and the last worship service of 2020. In these still uncertain pandemic times, we join in with all of creation to sing praises to God. Maybe you don’t feel like singing! That’s understandable. But God is here. With you. With us. And God’s grace is greater than any pandemic, any problem, and God’s abundant forgiveness is greater than all our sin. Sure, 2020 has left us out of sorts in every dimension of our life. We mourn lost loved ones. We grieve lost traditions. The Christmas Story proclaims that God is with us, Emmanuel, Jesus. That’s why we can celebrate.

In our Gospel reading we will witness the astounding effect the Christ Child had on those who met him, including Simeon and Anna. When Jesus is consecrated in the temple at 40 days of age, Simeon proclaims, “I have waited my entire life to see the Messiah, now I can die in peace.” Anna’s response is appears opposite that of Simeon’s, but is just as dramatic when she says upon seeing Jesus, “I have waited my entire life to see the Messiah, now I can truly live!” The message this week, The Christmas Nudge, asks us what our response is as we encounter Jesus today? Like Simeon and Anna, we too can feel God’s nudge to experience Jesus this year, as never before!

This Week’s Music Preview

We begin worship with O Come, All Ye Faithful. The origins of this 18^th century hymn has spread worldwide and is used by many denominations in every language imaginable. in both Latin and other versions.

While we continue to worship online every week, we are excited to welcome all who are able and comfortable to worship in-person in our historic Red Brick Church on Sundays at 10:30 AM. Your safety, health, and wellness are our our top priority. West Jersey Presbytery approved our session’s re-opening plan and our pastor, staff, and teams have worked hard to prepare for your arrival. Following the guidance from the CDC and health officials, we have implemented safety protocols, and designed an approximately thirty-minute worship experience that will be spiritually energizing and safe for you, your family, and other worshippers.

While we continue to worship online every week, we are excited to welcome all who are able and comfortable to worship in-person in our historic Red Brick Church on Sundays at 10:30 AM. Your safety, health, and wellness are our our top priority. West Jersey Presbytery approved our session’s re-opening plan and our pastor, staff, and teams have worked hard to prepare for your arrival. Following the guidance from the CDC and health officials, we have implemented safety protocols, and designed an approximately thirty-minute worship experience that will be spiritually energizing and safe for you, your family, and other worshippers.

This Week’s Worship Preview

Our Advent journey is in its final week as we witness Gabriel’s magnificent proclamation to Mary, and her Magnificat response to the news that she will give birth to the Savior. Pastor Kevin’s message, The True Location of Christmas, will stir our spirits in our pandemic world. Let’s reflect on Luke 1:26-38 and Romans 16:25-27 with the guidance of these questions:

1. If someone greeted you like royalty with “Your Majesty,” how do you think you would respond? Can you imagine addressing others in this fashion? Why, or why not?

2. What does it mean to you that God risked the vulnerability of becoming human “with us,” in our location, in order to restore us to our rightful place as bearers of the image of God?

3. This Christmas, how does loving God and others help us deal with our own selfishness as we see Christ in others?

This Week’s Music Preview

“What Child Is This?” is our carol this week with lyrics composed in 1865 by William Chatterton Dix, in Bristol, England. Adapting the memorable melody of “Greensleeves”, he tells the amazing story of the incarnation that God With Us, Jesus, is the “babe, the son of Mary!” (Yes, the exclamation is in the lyrics.) Lenore Bowne and Jayne McDonough offer “Mary Did You Know?” Written by entertainer Mark Lowry, in 1984, it is an example of a more modern musical take on the Christmas Story popularized by the Gaither Vocal Band in the 1970’s.